Kidnapped Agents
by DashaSarik
Summary: Justin, Anthony, Destiny, and Jake are secret agents in training, doing police work without getting caught. But someone doesn't like them. So they think kidnapping is the answer.


**CHAPTER ONE**

Justin

The final bell rings as I'm packing up my things. I walk out of the classroom with everyone else in my class and join Jake, Anthony, and Destiny waiting for me right outside the school.

"There you are," Jake says pulling his jacket tighter around him and zips it up.

We walk out of the school gates toward the line of school buses waiting outside. We walk to bus #24 (there are not actually twenty four buses standing there. It's out of the whole town) and get on, Jake and I on the left, Anthony and Destiny across from us, on the right.

The bus doesn't actually take us to our house. Because it's technically secret. The four of us are training to be secret agents. But for now, we're SAITs- Secret Agents In Training.

Not too long ago, a man named Josh shot a movie about us secretly. He got a bunch of actors and cameras and stuff. None of us except for Anthony knew what was going on. They made everything seem real and we basically had to prove ourselves and make a good movie out of it. I still have a big scar on my right arm from when Elijah accidentally stabbed me during the movie. By the way, Josh is a famous movie producer, but since word got out that he filmed us without our permission, he is behind bars for several years. My brother, Elijah, and his best friends, Jordan and Noah, were also part of the cast, but they were in on it. Everyone in the movie knew except for me, Destiny, and Jake. But that's behind us now, and everyone agreed that there would be no more secrets from each other.

The bus brought us to our stop. We get off with three others. The three kids head toward a small neighborhood up the road where the bus doesn't go, and the four of us wait until the bus has turned off the road before heading toward our houses.

We live in a clearing about a mile into the woods. There are four houses there, and two barns, and three garages. No one is supposed to know where we live. I think the only person who doesn't live with us knows where we live is Jordan. My dad suggested that he start training with us, too, so Jordan hangs out with Eli and Noah nearly everyday at mine or Jake's house (Noah is Jake's brother).

As we walk toward the woods, Jake shivers.

"Winter's finally here," he says. We didn't get any snow yet, but that can change any day.

"I hope Elijah drives by in his car. I hate walking in the cold and we've got a mile to go," I complain.

"Yeah," Anthony says.

Elijah does not drive by in his car. We get home in about twenty minutes.

The rule for all the school kids in our little neighborhood is that everyone has to finish their homework before training. So usually, about an hour after we get home is when we get back together and play basketball or soccer or head to the barn to climb the wall while we wait for the parents to get home. If Elijah, with Noah and Jordan, gets home before the parents do, we drive to the gym and practice on our own until the adults come.

Jordan, Noah, and Eli (I call him Eli instead of Elijah) get home before the parents do. After they eat and we all change into our agent warm up suits, Eli drives everyone down to the gym about seven miles from our place.

When we drive in the parking lot in front of the gym, I notice a black truck parked on the side, practically hidden. We walk inside the building and as we walk down the hall toward the gym, we hear yelling. We look at each other in confusion and sprint to the gym.

As we're running, Elijah dials 911 and tells them what's going on.

**CHAPTER TWO**

I know that the movie said that we are agents for the government. But the truth is, the government doesn't really like us. They want us to close our business. We do stuff like find victims of kidnappings, stop thieves, robberies, stuff like that. But the government said that the police can do that. But we have a lame police force. They aren't fast enough, aren't trained enough. So we do it in secret. But the government made a special group of soldiers to catch agents like us. SAC soldiers. Like in the movie. But they weren't actually SAC soldiers. Those were regular people or actors. Our entire lives, we live in fear of getting discovered. The government doesn't know who we actually are. They don't know our faces. But my dad, Jake's parents, and Anthony's parents are on the wanted list. Destiny's dad is a criminal. He hasn't done anything to be wanted yet, but that could change any day. He was in the movie, but only because Josh wanted to kind of shock and surprise Destiny. That's why he also used Eli and Noah. To throw me and Jake off.

My dad was almost caught but he managed to talk his way out of it. Both of Jake's parents are in jail right now. They were caught doing anti-government things that I won't name. They were sentenced for four years in prison. Jake and Noah live by themselves in their house.

It got kind of dark in our house. Jake had gotten very quiet. My dad's out constantly. Eli was always with Noah and Jordan. So me, Destiny, Anthony, and Jake have been spending a lot of time together. Anthony's parents are out as often as my dad is. And we've been training a lot more, just to pass the time.

**CHAPTER THREE**

I get to the gym first. I burst through the doors and come to a dead stop. Anthony stops next to me.

My dad's here. And so is Amos. And six other guys, all around Eli's age. I recognize two of them: Jason and Mason the twins. The same ones from the movie. They were actors for the kidnappers. Martin's helpers.

"What's going on here?" Eli yells at Amos.

I hear footsteps behind us. I whirl around.

"Eli!" I yell but it's too late. Three guys with bats had snuck up behind us. At the same time, all three had raised their bats and struck Eli, Noah, and Jordan on their heads. They fall down, unconscious.

"Justin!" my dad yells. I turn around and someone hits me right in the eye.

While I'm trying to see, whoever hit me shoves me on the ground. I push back my pain and look up to see Jason sitting on my legs to prevent me from getting up. He's pulling something out of his pocket. But before he can do anything, Anthony slams into him, knocking him off me. I struggle to stand up. I look over at Jason and Anthony. Jason knocked Anthony out with one hit of his powerful fist.

I brace myself when I see three more teens running at us. Quickly jumping up, I back up to Destiny and Jake as the three come up. I swing Mason, knocking him flat on his back. But he springs back up and tackles me. I kick him off me and run towards my dad. Two more teenagers grab my arms and hold me away from Amos and dad. I could probably fight off one of them, but two? I try to for a few seconds, but it's clear that I can't.

I lift my head to see Jake and Destiny. Destiny punches her guy's lights out. Jake is struggling to get his guy off him so Destiny runs over to help him. But before she does, two more teenagers surround her.

Only minutes later, the battle is over. Anthony is still unconscious. Destiny got two guys holding her, all three breathing hard. One of them has a bleeding nose and Destiny has a split lip. Jake is pinned down on the ground by Jason.

"Well well well! I actually thought you guys would win this battle. I mean after all, you guys have training every day. Too bad you aren't a little bigger or stronger!" Amos laughs, a smirk on his face.

"There's three of us and six of them. What do you expect?" I mutter.

"What do you want now?" Destiny asks, still breathing hard.

"Not another movie, is it?" Jake rolls his eyes.

"You three freaks put my brother in jail. And all these men have lost their jobs. Life has turned upside down for them because you decided to take this to court. The managers don't want to have anything to do with boys who acted in an illegal movie. So now, we are here to get revenge," Amos explains, his voice low and mad. He raises his hand and I'm shocked to see a gun. He points the gun at my dad.

"No!" I yell. _Boom boom!_

"No! No, no, no! Dad!" I yell, but the teenagers hold me.

My dad collapses on the ground, blood spilling from his chest.

"Let's go," Amos said. "And bring the girl and the two boys. Leave the others."

The teens start dragging me away from my dad, toward the exit. I strain and twist to get out of their grip. But they hold tight.

Next thing I know, we're outside, on the side of the building that's hidden from the road. The guys shove me in the back of the truck and some others throw Destiny back here, too. Jake is thrown in, then a thick, black canvas is thrown and fastened on top of the truck, leaving us in semidarkness.

I lay down in the truck and put my head in my hands to hide the tears. But the tears keep coming. Hard.

"Justin, it's okay to cry sometimes. You don't have to be embarrassed about it," Destiny says softly.

I look up at her. I know she's been through a lot with her parents, too. Her dad's a kidnapper. He doesn't want her. She has no idea where her mom is. Jake's parents are in jail. But at least they know that their parents are alive. Neither of mine are now.

"You think they're gonna kill Eli, Noah, and Jordan?" I ask through tears.

Both are silent. The truck suddenly starts and drives backwards way faster than anyone should drive when they're backing up. We hear sirens in the distance. Couldn't they have come faster?

The truck turns around, throwing the three of us around in the back. The truck turns on the highway and roars down the road, dodging slower cars. I slam into the cab and Jake slams into me.

_Crack, crack, crack!_

"Are they shooting at us?" Jake cries.

There's a loud crash and the sirens go off. More crashes.

"A car crashed into one of the police cars. The second police car swerved and slammed into a tree," Destiny says, peeking through a hole in the canvas.

"Oh God," Jake shudders.

Mile after mile after mile. We drive for another two hours or so. Jake fell asleep. Seriously man? We're in trouble here!

"Where do you think they're taking us? And revenge? What's that supposed to mean?" Destiny asks quietly.

"This is crazy," I reply.

A loud crash shatters the quiet. The back right side of the truck bumps upward a couple feet and the truck swerves out of control. We fly around in the back. Something big falls on top of the truck and hits me in the head. I black out.

**CHAPTER FOUR**

Destiny

Whatever fell on top of the truck didn't hit me because I wasn't sitting next to Justin. But I saw as something big hit him in the head and he was knocked out. I don't know what it was, the canvas is blocking it, but I think it was a tree.

The truck doors open and shut and I hear some yelling.

"Damn, it's a tree! How will we get out of here?" I hear someone scream angrily.

The tailgate opens and Amos looks in with a couple of his minions. He can't see Justin or Jake - the tree is lying across the truck bed. I'm stuck on one side while Jake and Justin are on the other. They're the lucky ones.

"Get out," Amos orders me.

"Where are the others?" Amos asks me, glaring at me like it's my fault that he hit a tree.

"Where do you think? In there of course!" I reply, annoyed.

"Call for backup. And make sure she doesn't run off," Amos orders Jason, Mason, and a third guy. That guy pulls out his cell phone and calls someone. Jason and Mason stand close to me to make sure I don't run away, not that I would leave the guys here.

About twenty minutes later, an SUV pulls up next to us. Martin jumps out. What the heck? What's he doing here?

He looks around and sees me.

"Why do you have her again?" he asks Amos.

"What do ya mean? I told you I'm getting revenge on these midgets. Weren't you listening at all?" Amos replies, looking at his phone.

"I didn't think you meant her," Martin replies.

No way am I calling him dad. Nope. He is Martin to me. Not dad. He left me when I was little. I doubted I would ever see him again. But here he is. Again! Great. Not.

Amos turns to the twins and orders them to put me in the car.

"Just leave her here. She's too much trouble anyway," Martin says.

"No way. I'm getting my revenge. But right now, we need to figure out how to get the two from behind the tree," Amos says. "C'mon, guys, move it!"

Jason and Mason drag me to the car and force me in the backseat. One stands at each door, guarding it.

I look out the window and see that Martin and Amos are in the cab, figuring out a way to get Jake and Justin out of the truck.

After about thirty minutes of trying different ways, they give up. No one is small enough to climb through the back window, and it's too hard to pull them out. Martin gets in the driver's seat and Amos in the passenger seat. Mason and Jason on either side of me. Three guys behind us.

"You're just gonna leave them here? They're gonna die!" I yell.

"They'll be fine. They're agents right? They'll find a way to take care of themselves!" Amos and Martin laugh. Martin hands an alcohol bottle to Amos and gets one himself. They start drinking and Martin presses the gas pedal and we speed forward.

"But it's miles away from any town!" I argue.

"Just hush will ya?" Amos rolls his eyes.

The next half hour passes quickly. Martin turns on a dirt road and drives about a mile into the woods. We come to a stop in front of a small house.

"Everybody out!" Martin bellows.

I get out after Jason. He grips my arm and waits to see what Amos will tell him to do. Mason climbs out and grips my other arm.

Martin and Amos are talking quietly. Right before Martin climbs back in his car, I hear him say, "be good with my daughter". I roll my eyes. Since when does he care?

Martin drives away. Amos leads the way to the house.

"Put her in the office," Amos orders.

Jason and Mason lead me into a small office. Just a little hole about a foot off the ground in the are no windows. They leave me inside and lock the door from the outside.

Great. Just great.

**CHAPTER FIVE**

Justin

When I wake up, the first thing I think is _where am I? _My head hurts and it all comes back. I look around and see that a tree laying across the cargo bed blocks my way out. My head has a killer headache. I look around and see Jake lying unconscious next to me. I shake him awake.

"What the heck?" he says. "Where are we?"

"We're still in the truck. A tree fell on top and knocked us out. Where's Destiny?" Panic swells up in my chest. We're teammates. We have to look out for one another.

"Look there's the window to the cab. Let's try getting out. Then we can see if she's nearby," Jake suggests. Without waiting for a response, he reaches up and pulls himself out. I do the same, cutting my palms on the glass that didn't break off when the window shattered.

We jump out of the cab and race to the back to see if Destiny's on the other side of the tree. But when we peer inside, the truck bed is empty, and the tailgate is open. Why would she stay here anyway? She would be trying to wake us up or figuring out how to get us out if she was around.

"No way Destiny could have kicked the tailgate open. Those things are like impossible to break," I say.

"Look, the lock is not broken. Which means, she most likely wasn't hit by the tree. Amos and his morons probably took her out. The question is, did someone pick them up on a car, or did they walk?" Jake says. Of course she's not in there. Any smart kidnapper knows not to leave his victims lying around.

"If they walked, they can't be that far. Let's try walking the direction the truck was heading and see if it takes us anywhere," I suggest.

"Wait, Justin. It's going to be dark in a few hours. We should get some sleep in the truck and start early tomorrow morning," Jake says.

"But they could be anywhere by tomorrow morning!" I argue.

"Driving on this road, chances are, they got a place a few miles down the road. C'mon. You know we won't get anywhere today. And traveling in the dark is dangerous," Jake begs me. I give in. We walk back to the truck and get ourselves comfortable, hidden from anyone driving past.

**CHAPTER SIX**

The next morning, I wake up at dawn. Jake's still asleep. I quickly shake him awake.

"C'mon Jake let's go. We have to find Destiny!"

Jake opens his eyes and looks at me tiredly.

"A few more minutes," he moans.

"No! If you're not going to get up, I'm going without you." I know that'll get him up.

"Fine!" he grumbles sitting up.

I start walking down the road. Jake stretches and follows me.

"Come on, let's jog," Jake says running ahead of me. I catch up to him.

It's cold. Good thing we have our agent suits on. They're warm. As the sun gets higher in the sky, it gets warmer. Jake and I have run for about two hours already.

"How much farther should we go?" I call to him, slowing down. He slows down also.

"Why don't we just keep going until we come to a town, or a hidden road or something?" he replies. "All roads lead somewhere."

"Well, if it's hidden, then how are _we_ supposed to see it?" I ask rolling my eyes.

"Hey. They're hidden for normal people. Not agents. Right?" Jake asks softly.

"Right, sorry. Let's go," I start jogging again.

We run for about another hour when I see a dirt road leading into the woods that we would have missed if we were on the other side of the road.

"We found it!" Jake cheers.

"Hold on. We don't know for sure if that's the road they went on. But it's a high chance. Look for tracks in the ground."

"Right," Jake says looking a little embarrassed for getting so excited. He looks down. "There's no use. The ground's practically frozen. Even if anything drove through, there would be no tracks."

"C'mon," I urge and we run quietly on the side of the road. "If you hear any cars coming, hide."

A couple minutes later, we see a small house. A couple guys who were in the gym with Amos are outside, sword-fighting with sticks. Jake and I, staying hidden by the trees, make our way closer and closer to the house. We manage to get around to the side of the house without getting caught. There are no windows on this wall. But I do notice a small hole about a foot off the ground in the corner big enough for both of us to look through but too small for anyone to get through.

I point it out to Jake and we both carefully and quietly make our way to the hole and lay down in front of it. I peer in. Destiny is sitting against the wall, her knees pulled up to her stomach, her head in her hands. There is no one else in the room. The door is obviously locked. From the outside. Which means we have to sneak in to get Destiny out. But that means we also have to find the key.

After checking one more time if anyone was in the room, I whisper yell, "Destiny!"

Her head jerks up at the sound of her name and she looks around the room. "Destiny! Down here!" I whisper yell again.

She finally finds us and quickly crawls over. "How in the world did you find me? We're nowhere near the truck. And I didn't think you guys even survived. You scared the crap out of me!" she whispers.

"Sorry!" I mumble.

"Where is everyone? We need to get you out of here," Jake whispers.

"How am I supposed to know? They locked me in here as soon as we got here," she replies.

"I have a plan," and I tell the two of them my plan.

"You smart boy!" Jake says, high-fiving me.

The lock clicks. Destiny quickly turns away from us, leaning against the wall the way she did before we came. The twins come into the room.

"Get up. Amos wants to talk," Mason says. The way I know it's Mason is because they're not exactly alike. Their hair color is different for one.

Destiny quickly stands up. "Where?" She probably asked that for us.

"Back porch. Why does it matter anyway?" Jason says. He grabs her arm and jerks her toward the door. Destiny glances back at us before she leaves, making sure we heard. Soon's the door is closed, Jake and I crawl back to the trees. Staying hidden, we sneak to the back, getting as close as we dared to hear what Amos has to say. We lay down on the ground among some trees and cover ourselves with branches to be better hidden.

"What luck!" I whisper after we're hidden.

"I know right!" Jake answers.

Amos is sitting on the porch swing. Martin is sitting on a couch. Martin? What's he doing here?

Jason and Mason finally come out with Destiny. Destiny does not seem to be surprised at all that he's there. Weird.

"I'll leave you two to talk. Call me when you're done," Amos says standing up. Destiny sends him a look saying _please don't leave me alone with him!_ But Amos ignores it. Everyone leaves the porch except for Martin and Destiny.

"Why are you still an agent? You're ruining your life. It's a matter of time before the real truth comes out," Martin begins.

Martin's back is to us. Destiny's facing us but she doesn't seem to have noticed us yet. Slowly, I raise my hand and wave it around. Destiny looks at us for a second, but then quickly looks back at Martin so that he doesn't notice where she's looking.

"Ready?" I'm nervous. "Coo-coo. Coo-coo!"

Destiny stands up. "What was that?" She looks toward us. Martin turns around in his seat and looks the same way Destiny did. Yes! Everything is going according to plan. Destiny catches my eye for a second, then bolts off the porch and runs to the side of the house. Jake and I jump up and follow her.

"AMOS!" we hear Martin yelling behind us. "FRONT YARD!"

Oh no! They're gonna try to trap us. But the three of us are already in the front yard, running towards the road, when I hear yelling behind us and lots of footsteps.

"Hurry!" Jake cries.

I run as fast as my legs will carry me. The three of us run up the small hill to the road and look back. Jason and Mason are about a hundred feet away. Jason reaches inside his jacket and pulls out a knife and stops at the bottom of the hill. Mason, Amos, and the others catch up. Everyone is yelling. I hear the cars too late to react.

"FBI, freeze! Put your weapons down! Don't move!" several voices shout from behind me.

I whirl around to see four black cars standing in the road. The front doors of each car is open, with an agent behind it, guns and tasers raised.

"Put your guns down and face away! Guns down and face away!" The agents repeat this several times. Three of the six kidnappers throw their guns in the woods and face away, hands in the air. The twins and Amos don't budge.

"I'm not joking! I have tasers and guns. We'll shoot you if need be!" One of the agents yells.

Amos doesn't hesitate. He starts shooting.

"Get down!" I yell, yanking Jake by the arm in the ground. We lay down on the ground to avoid the shooting. The three kidnappers who threw away their weapons start running off into the woods. The FBI agents shoot back.

"Come on!" Jake yells, crawling away from the shootout and sprinting away. We follow him.

"Stop right there!" I hear yelling behind us. "Faster!" I cry.

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

The shooting stops abruptly. My ears ring from the guns. Looking behind me, I see four agents running after us. And they're fast.

"Stop or I'll tase you!" one of the agents yells.

Something hits me in the leg and I stumble. One agent catches up to me and swings his arm around my neck, and we both go down. The two other agents stop chasing Destiny and Jake and help the first agent. One grabs handcuffs and wraps one around my wrist. I struggle to get up, but the first agent still has me in a headlock.

"Don't resist don't resist. Don't resist!" one of them keeps saying. He presses his knee into my back. The second agent grabs my arm, forcing it behind my back and handcuffs it.

The agents pull me up on my feet and push me back to the cars. The agents pat me down to make sure I'm not armed. They take away my pocketknife and taser, which I carry for safety reasons. All four of us do.

I see the three kidnappers that ran away in the next car. I don't see the twins anywhere or Amos.

The agents investigate around the property, then come back to the cars. An agent named Alex gets in the driver's seat. The glass on his window is shattered. He turns the car around, and drives back to the city.

The car drives to the harbor and unto a military ship. The agents take me out of the car once the car is parked on the ship.

I see several agents handling Amos and three other kidnappers. Amos is fighting and won't cooperate. The agents yell at him. He headbutts a guy and kicks another. One agent takes his taser out and tases Amos, who falls hard.

A couple workers start yelling. I turn to see what's going on. A girl runs up the ramp, on the ship, and starts running across the deck. I realize with a jolt that it's Destiny.

"Destiny!" I exclaim.

"Get her! She's one of the three!" Alex the driver yells.

At least six workers run after her.

I see movement in the corner of my eye, and turn to see Jake sneaking aboard. In all the chaos, he easily finds a good hiding place. So that was their plan!

I turn back to where Destiny is being chased. She's fast, but there are many people aboard the ship. She dodged equipment and reaching hands and jumps on top of a crate, already climbing onto the next to jump over the pile, when a worker appears on top of the pile from the other side and jumps down on top of her.

They both fall hard on the deck. As the man fumbles to get his gun out of his holster, Destiny punches him hard. Anyone who knows Destiny knows that you don't want to get hit by her fist. She has a really strong hit that can easily break a nose.

I don't know if Destiny broke this guy's nose, but he rolls off her, clutching his nose with his hand. Destiny springs up to run, but other workers had caught up by now. As soon as she stood up, two workers grabbed her arms and shoved her back down on the deck. A couple agents have their hands on their tasers.

After a few moments of struggle, they handcuffed her and brought her over to us. Her split lip is bleeding and she's breathing hard.

A man comes up to us. All the agents and workers stand up straighter.

"So these are the agents working against us?" he asks, looking down at us glaringly.

"Yes, sir," Alex replies.

The man leans in close to me.

"You will never succeed. We will catch all of you!" Then to Destiny, "Look how foolish you are acting. Running on a deck full of your enemies. And whose plan was that?" he laughs, then says to the agents, "Bring them to my office."

Alex forces me to walk behind Mr. Commander. Every worker we pass nods at the boss, and steps out of his way. The boss nods back at them and keeps walking.

After walking to the other end of the ship, several floors down, we finally come to the boss's office. It's a pretty big room, with a table, chairs, cabinets, shelves, and couches. In addition, there are two floor-to-ceiling holding cells.

Alex shoves me into one of the cells, making me hit my head really hard against the back wall. The boss sits at his desk and dismisses the agents.

Boss Man folds his hands in front of him and asks us some questions.

"Why did you run across the deck? That was a foolish thing to do! Actually, it was a really smart thing to do if you want to get caught," he says to Destiny, his beady little eyes looking down his long nose at her. Destiny doesn't answer him.

"You are not going to ignore me! I'm a very powerful man" The man yells. He gets up from his desk and walks over to us. He stands right in front of Destiny's cell.

"I said, why were you running across the deck? You obviously had a plan. For kids like you never do dumb things like that. I'm sure you're trained better than that?"

Destiny won't talk to him.

"Just leave her be!" I exclaim. "Leave us alone! Don't you think you'd be shocked if you'd just been captured by your biggest enemy?"

The commander calls two agents in. "Search the ship. I have a feeling that we have a stowaway on board," he orders.

Destiny's eyes widen when he says that. And the commander noticed it.

"Yes sir," the agents salute and run out of the office.

"So that was your plan wasn't it? I saw your reaction. That wasn't a very good plan. I have over a hundred men on this ship. Don't think that your dumb little friend will free you two losers." The commander sits down behind his desk and starts doing paperwork.

Not wanting to say anything important in front of the general, we sit in silence. There is a window behind the commander. It was all the two of us could do to not gasp or exclaim. Jake is standing behind the glass, silently opening the window. He stands behind the commander, getting ready to knock him unconscious.

The boss glanced up at us. Seeing our faces, he quickly turns around, and sees Jake. Jake jumps on the man's head. They struggle for a second, but Jake kicks him unconscious.

"Jake! You made it!" Destiny exclaims.

"Find the key and get us out of here!" I tell him.

Jake searches the room, but can't find any keys. He takes out his pocketknife and picks first the lock to my cell, then my handcuffs. He turns to Destiny's cell.

There are voices at the door. "I heard some weird noises in here." "Think Rick is interrogating?" Two voices. The door swings open. Two workers stand at the door. Seeing us out of our cells, they quickly pull their guns out.

"Run you guys!" Destiny yells.

"But what about you?" I ask.

"I'll be fine. Go!"

Jake races to the window, and jumps out. I follow him. The guards yell and run to the window. But they don't jump out. They look around but cannot see us. There's a little room under the window about two feet high and about a meter deep. Jake and I huddle there.

I hear the guards retreating and the cell door swings open.

"Cmon, lets go!" one of them yells.

"They're taking her somewhere!" I whisper.

**CHAPTER EIGHT **

Once we're sure that the guards are gone and there's no one nearby, we stand up and peak into the room. The commander is still unconscious on the floor.

We climb back in the room and stand next to him. "Wow I'm surprised that he guards didn't call someone to take care of him yet," I wonder out loud.

I shouldn't have said that. It's like I jinxed things. Two seconds after I said that, the door opened and four young agents, all between the ages of sixteen and twenty five (I'm pretty sure), walk in, talking and laughing. They immediately stopped talking when they saw us. Just like everyone else on the ship, they had heard about what happened with the kidnappers and Destiny running across the deck.

"Wait a sec. Didn't we just see one of them in the hall? Going to the interrogation room? I thought they caught only two of them. But there's three!"

"Are you trying to turn yourselves in?" The second guy says.

"Why are you guys not in the cell? What were the guards thinking?" The third asks.

"Get them!" the fourth one yells, finally realizing that we had escaped.

I turn around and jump over the window sill, Jake right behind me.

I race down the narrow hallway, up three flights of stairs, and stop myself from running into the open deck, where hundreds, it seems, of workers are walking this way and that.

We hear footsteps running behind us.

"There!" Jake whispers, spying some big crates stacked in a pile. We find two empty boxes, and climb inside them, quickly putting the tops on top. We can't close them, cause you can't close them from inside the crate, but we managed to just put them on top to cover us. The four teens run right past us.

But only minutes later, several workers come and carry the crates somewhere. Somewhere on the lower decks. I think we're down in the hold. I can hear water below us.

Once the workers left, we waited several minutes before crawling out. Yep, we're in the hold. There are boxes everywhere. And there's also several holding cells in the corner. And there are prisoners.

Suddenly, there are footsteps and voices above us. I glance up. There is a trapdoor about fifteen feet up. Three workers slide down a rope attached to the top down to the hold. They haven't noticed us yet.

"Send her down!" One of them yells.

Three dark shapes appear above the trapdoor. One is noticeably smaller than the other two. The two big ones struggle to push the smaller body into the hold.

Jake, and I quickly crouch behind some boxes, close to the workers to see who they're trying to send down.

"They're just gonna throw someone fifteen feet down? What's wrong with them?" Jake whispers.

The two adults finally push the small figure over the side and the person falls quickly. We notice that the person is handcuffed, and cannot stop their fall.

The three workers at the bottom slow her fall. The figure steps into the light and we see that it's Destiny. Two men walk over to the cells and unlock them. The third worker uncuffs Destiny and all three climb up a rope ladder that had been dropped down.

"She's all yours," the tallest man tells the prisoners before climbing up.

I'm all ready to go up to Destiny, but Jake encourages me to wait and see what's going to happen.

The four prisoners approach Destiny. It's all we can do not to gasp. I've never seen someone with such huge muscles. Like, it's crazy. Whatever the worker meant by 'she's yours' can't be good.

"Never had to interrogate a girl before. How 'bout you guys?" The biggest one says.

"Done it once. Tough thing. Makes you feel real bad. And this one's a kid. Can't be older than fourteen!" the guy with white-blonde hair laughs.

"I-interrogate?" Destiny stammers.

"Don't worry, we won't go too hard on you!" The third guy says, walking over to her. He's got to be at least seven feet tall. He reaches down and picks Destiny up by the back of her collar.

"Cmon!" I whisper.

"No wait," Jake replies.

"Oh, so we're just gonna let her get beat up by four super muscular guys?" I tell him, rolling my eyes.

"We're gonna let them get started, and while they're distracted, we attack," Jake answers.

"Let them get started?!" I exclaim. Out loud. I clap my hand over my mouth but it's too late.

All four men and Destiny jerk their heads in our direction. When they finally see us, three of them charge at us. The fourth one, the one holding Destiny, drops her on the ground and holds her there while the three men are chasing us.

"Run!" Jake yells when the men charge. We take off in two different directions.

I take off toward the cells. They're on the other side of the hold, and I hope I can climb up the cells to where the man can't reach me.

But after five seconds of running, something hits me hard on the back, and I collapse of the ground, my back burning.

The man is upon me instantly. He picks me up and carries me to where his partner and Destiny are. As he carries me, I notice a whip in his hand. So that's what he hit me with. It hurts real bad. My back feels like it's on fire.

The man sits me down on the ground and his partner shoves Destiny against me. I cry out in pain as Destiny collides into my back.

One of the interrogators still chasing Jake stops chasing him and comes over to us. Two men hold me and Destiny back to back while the third ties us together with a thick rope.

I look up to see that Jake climbed up one of the cells. There's a rope hanging there, going up to the ceiling.

The fourth interrogator is almost on top of the cell. But Jake kicks him hard in the face, and the man falls back down with a cry of pain.

Jake glances back at us and see me looking at him.

"I'll be back! I'll get you out of here!" He yells.

"Don't count on it kid!" The tallest man yells back at him.

Jake glances at us one more time and climbs up the rope, vanishing out of sight at the top.

**CHAPTER NINE**

"At least we get two instead of one," the guy with a big beard says. He and a guy with blonde white hair grab mine and Destiny's arms and walk us back toward the cells.

They put us in the smallest one. They also attach a rope to the rope on my chest to one of the bars of the cell. Same on Destiny's side. Then they lock the cell. They walk to the other side of the hold, sitting on some crates.

As soon as they start talking, Destiny reaches into a secret pocket of her jacket and takes out her pocketknife. She struggles to cut the rope holding us together, since we're tied against each other, but she finally cuts through it.

As soon as I'm free, I lay down on my stomach and try to forget about my back. I hear Destiny gasp when she sees my back.

"Is it really that bad?" I gasp, suddenly out of breath.

"The whip cut through your jacket and made a deep cut on your back. Looks pretty bad," she answers.

"It hurts real bad, too," I tell her.

"I'll try to pick the lock and get us out of here," Destiny says, walking over to the lock and starts picking it with her knife.

"Careful so they don't see you," I whisper.

"Got it," she replies.

A couple minutes later, we hear the lock click.

"Let's wait a little. They'll see us if we try to go now," I recommend.

"No. It's better to go now. Sooner or later, they'll come over here to check on us. Even if they see us, we'll climb up the same way Jake did before they get to us. C'mon Justin. You can do it," Destiny encourages.

While we were talking, we didn't notice that one of the men was walking towards us already. I look up at the sound of footsteps and yell "run!"

Destiny pushes the unlocked door open and climbs up the metal bars on top of the cell. I run out after her. I'm almost at the top, all I needed was to pull myself up, when someone grabbed my leg. The muscular man yanked my leg and, and having no strength left, I let go and fall in his arms. He smacks me and drops me to the ground, putting his foot on my chest.

Meanwhile, the blonde guy scales the cell like a monkey and grabs the rope. Destiny is already about halfway up. Blondie climbs the rope twice as fast as she does. He's got a _lot _more upper strength than she does.

The other three gangsters reach me. Two grab me and shove me back into the cell, locking it, and all three climb the cell.

Blondie is just below Destiny by now. Destiny tried to kick him in the face, but he dodges her and pulls himself level with her. Destiny knees him in the stomach. The man gasps for breath but holds on.

"Get her down here!" The bearded man calls to his partner.

Blondie quickly reaches his arm toward Destiny and wraps his huge arms around her waist. She struggles to free herself, but she's no match for this beast. He slides down the rope and hands her off to his friends. They all come down and shove Destiny into the second cell, not in mine.

"Just to be clear," the blondie says. "I'm Jorik. He," he points at the bearded guy, "is Waldo. This is Zane," the most muscular guy, "and Gunner," a guy with a mean scowl on his face and a huge scar on his neck. Clearly made to be a leader. And he's also like seven feet tall.

"Our job, as you may be wondering," Gunner growls. "Is to torture and interrogate prisoners the FBI catches."

The trapdoor opens and two baskets are lowered down. All four men troop to the baskets and take out food and drinks out of them. Zane walks over and puts me in Destiny's cell and gives us the second basket of food. Inside, we find bread, cheese, jam, butter, a butter knife, and two bottles of water. We quickly eat everything, except the water bottles. I drink most of mine but Destiny barely drinks half. Zane takes the basket and attaches it to a hook. Both baskets are raised back up.

My eyes suddenly feel heavy. I lay down and slip into a deep sleep.

When I wake up, everyone is awake. Destiny's munching on a carrot and the men are gathered around the basket, a couple feet from the cells.

"What should we do today?" Waldo asks eyeing the others.

"Our job," Gunner growls.

"Already? Let's have some fun with them first!" Jorik begs.

"Fine," Gunner grumbles.

"Really?" Jorik asks.

"Yes. We'll get them ready for what's coming."

Waldo and Zane chuckled while Jorik pouted.

"Alright let's begin," Gunner claps his hands and Waldo and Zane scramble to open the cell and take me and Destiny out.

Gunner walks up to Destiny in a purposeful stride. "I don't like prisoners that cause trouble. And when prisoners cause trouble, I cause more trouble for them," and then, without any warning, too quick to see it coming, he punches Destiny in the stomach with a fist of iron. She gasps in surprise and pain, and Waldo loses his grip on her, clearly not expecting the punch either.

Gunner stalks up to me and Zane next. He puts his finger under my chin and forces me to look at him. I look him in the eye, not knowing where else to look. And it's kind of hard not to. It's like a magnet. I can't move my eyes away. He knows that I'm too focused staring at him to notice anything else. He raises his fist and brutally smacks me across the mouth. I feel like his punch rattled my brain and I see stars. I taste blood. Struggling to free myself from Zane is useless.

Jorik takes a whip out of his pocket. Gunner picks up a long stick that was leaning against the wall. Waldo picks up Destiny again and holds her tight. I feel Zane's grip tighten on me.

They have no mercy.

**CHAPTER TEN**

Destiny

Zane drags Justin back five feet when Jorik and Gunner finish beating him. These people are evil. They took away his jacket, leaving him with a thin shirt on and hit him with a stick and a whip. I'm next.

Once they're done, both Jorik and Gunner turn their attention to me. I feel Waldo's grip tighten and his breath sounds nervous. What does he have to be afraid of?

Jorik looks me up and down. "Aw, Gunner, I can't. I never done a girl before. Especially a pretty one like this one!" Jorik whines.

Gunner glares at him. "Girl or not, pretty or ugly, this is our job, Jorik. If you're not going to do it, I will, and I'll tell him just how helpful you were." he raises his whip and snaps it down. It catches me on the cheek, leaving a deep cut. I flinch in pain, and Waldo shivers behind me.

Zane walks over and reaches for my right arm. Gunner advances toward me, his face its usual scowl. But Jorik jumps in front of him. "C'mon Gunner. I'm sure she gets the lesson!" Jorik pleads.

"What am I to you? Why do you care so much?" I ask, feeling sweat pouring down my back.

At that moment, the trapdoor fifteen-twenty feet up opens and a basket is lowered down. A moment later, a second one is lowered.

Gunner sends everyone a glare, shoving Jorik out of his way and makes his way toward the baskets. Jorik glances at me and then quickly follows Gunner. Waldo pushes me toward Justin and follows the others to their food. I sit down next to Justin and watch the others eat silently.

I glance at Justin. His eyes seem to be closed. Or maybe it's because they're swollen. I hear his breath coming out in raspy gasps.

"Justin?" I whisper.

Justin lifts his head and looks at me. "Are you alright? I heard some arguing, but I don't know what happened," he asks, barely having the strength even to whisper.

"Um, they haven't done anything yet. I don't know what they're doing. Two baskets were lowered a couple minutes ago. When Gunner saw them, he immediately went over there," I tell him, feeling a little bad that he had to go through the beating and I still didn't.

"Good. I hope they don't do to you what they did to me," he chokes out. He takes a deep ragged breath, and he slumps against me, his head falling on my shoulder.

"Justin?" when he doesn't reply, "Justin!" louder. "Justin can you hear me?"

I think one of the guys heard me, because Jorik and Waldo walk over.

"Did he fall unconscious?" Jorik asks. I nod, becoming worried.

Waldo takes his cell phone out and asks someone on the phone to bring a basket down, we've got an unconscious prisoner that requires medical assistance.

"Why beat him half to death, if you're still gonna give him a doctor?" I ask.

"The doctor isn't really good with prisoners. He does a whatever job with them, just to keep them alive, and nothing more. So don't have too high hopes for your boyfriend," Jorik informs me.

"He's not my boyfriend," I mutter as Waldo picks up Justin, swings him over his shoulder, and walks to the waiting basket.

"You know why I don't think Gunner should beat you?" Jorik asks, sitting down next to me. "Because if there are two prisoners, one of them gets beat up, and the other will know what will happen to them if they do something stupid again. Basically, they get another chance."

"Why'd you choose Justin?" I ask, even though I'm pretty sure I know the answer.

"Well, for one, we caught him first. Second, you're really pretty. You wouldn't look good with a beat up face!" Jorik laughs.

"How long till Justin's back?" I ask.

"Why? So you can go back to kissing each other?" Jorik laughs again.

"We never kissed and we're not dating!" I yell.

"Come and eat Jorik," Zane calls.

"Your buddies want you. So please leave," I tell him.

"What, you're not hungry?" He asks.

"I don't have food. And it's not like I'm going to go around asking strangers like you for food," I mumble.

Jorik gets up and brings the second basket over. He drops it in front of me and goes back to his partners.

I don't touch the food. My stomach is twisted way too tight to be thinking of food right now. And my cheek is really hurting now. I don't know how deep the cut is, but I hope it's not too bad.

I glance up to see Jorik walking towards me. He looks like he's about to say something, but Gunner says something first. "Anyone else smell smoke?" I glance at the trapdoor and see dark gray smoke wafting through. And it's going fast. The room is filled with smoke. Jorik grabs my arm and stumbles through the hold to the others. Everyone is coughing.

"What are we waiting for?" Jorik asks. "And where's the smoke coming from?"

"I don't know where the smoke is coming from, but I know we won't last long. Get the axe Zane. We'll break through," Gunner orders.

After a couple minutes, Zane breaks a hole through the wall. The ground is about five feet away. Zane jumps out, reaching his arms back to catch me. Jorik picks me up and tosses me easily to Zane. Then he, Gunner, and Waldo jump over.

We finally got some snow. About two feet of snow cover everything except the roads. It's pretty, but I've got no time to worry about that.

"I've got my keys. Zane, you got yours?" Gunner says.

"I got them! Let's go!" Zane replies.

"Wait. Wipe the blood off. We'll be suspicious," Gunner orders. Jorik scoops up some snow and presses it against my cheek. I jerk my head away, because the snow makes it hurt more. The others use the snow to wipe blood off their hands and clothes.

"Alright let's go," Gunner says. Jorik places an iron grip on my arm as Gunner leads us through the crowd which has gathered to watch the huge ship burn. Workers are rushing around on the deck, trying to save the most important things. We hear sirens in the distance and I catch sight of a red fire truck.

We come to a stop in a small abandoned parking lot that has two cars. A pickup and a Volkswagen. Zane and Waldo head to the Volkswagen. Gunner and Jorik and me to the pickup. Gunner gets in the driver's seat, while Jorik puts me behind Gunner's seat by the window. He ties my wrists together professionally. But no seat belt. Jorik makes himself comfortable next to me.

Gunner starts the truck and drives off, Zane driving behind him, and turns on the highway.

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

We drive on and on and on and on.

"So what's the plan Gunner?" Jorik asks at one point.

"Get as far away from here as possible. And figure out the next orders," Gunner replies.

I stare out the window, looking for anything familiar. I have no idea what might happen in the future. Calling the police will get me away from these four, but to the hands of the FBI. Where would I get a phone anyway? It's a lose-lose situation. Sure I'll be happy to get away from them, but the FBI put me in the hands of these men in the first place.

I see the first car we've seen on this road. It's a black SUV. With a sticker on the bumper that looks like a badge. I sit up. It's an agent car. Elijah and Noah have cars with stickers like those!

Gunner also notices the car. He pulls into the lane next to the car and speeds up to level with the car.

"This is gonna be fun," he says smirking at me through the rearview mirror. "Here," he hands Jorik a roll of tape. "Put it on her. Give her friends a little scare." Wait, how does he know that 'my friends' are in that car?

Gunner pulls his window down, and motions for the person in the other car to roll down their window. I can't see who it is, but I think they're hesitating to open the window. Gunner sees the hesitation. He turns to Jorik.

"Open her window," he orders. Jorik leans across me and rolls the window down, blasting cold air into the car. The SUV swerves for a second, and the window finally opens and I get a good look at who's inside.

It's Noah! And I'm pretty sure Elijah is the driver. Noah is staring at me in shock. Jorik reaches for my hand and raises my hands up to the window. Noah's eyes grow wide and his mouth drops open. I yanked my hands away from Jorik, but he holds tight.

"Pull over!" Jorik yells over me at Noah. His breath smells like garlic. Beh. Noah says something to someone in the car, and after a few moments, the car pulls over

on the side of the road. Gunner pulls up behind them.

Elijah, Noah, Jordan, Jake, and Anthony climb out of the car. Gunner opens the door and steps out. I didn't know that Jake and Anthony were with them. Though I'm happy they are.

"Why is she in your car?" Eli yells.

"Let her go!" Anthony lunges at Gunner but Gunner just brushes him off.

Jorik opens his car door on the other side, pulls me out behind him. He takes the tape off and, keeping both his hands firmly on my shoulders, leads me to the other side where the others await.

**CHAPTER TWELVE**

Elijah

When a truck pulled up next to us on the road, I immediately thought that the car looked suspicious. Then the driver pulled his window down and motioned for Noah to open his window.

Noah turned to me and asked, "Should I? He looks suspicious."

The man must have seen our hesitation, because he said something to someone else in the car, and the back window was rolled down.

There was a girl sitting in the back seat. It was Destiny! She has a scared look on her face. She also looks really tired. There's a piece of tape over her mouth, making her look even worse. She and Jake and Justin had gone missing ever since the gym incident. Jake has come back, but Justin and Destiny we're nowhere to be found.

Jake had told us that they had been captured by the FBI. He and Destiny has escaped, but Justin was captured. Later on, Destiny was captured. Jake had managed to free Justin, but not Destiny. He and Justin got discovered after Destiny was handed off to four big men to be interrogated and beat up and stuff. Justin got captured but Jake managed to escape yet again. He snuck off the ship and came home.

"Looks like track finally paid off," he had said grimly.

Now, we were driving on the highway, on our way to visit Jake's parents in prison, for some advice, when the car drove up.

There's a man sitting in the back with her. He reaches for her, grabs her hands, and raises them up to the window. Her hands are tied in front of her. I guess the man was telling us that she's their prisoner and we'd better do as they say. Destiny tried to yank away her hands, but the man won't let go.

Now the driver yells at us to pull over. When I start pulling over, Noah says, "no dude! It's a trap. They knew that we know Destiny and they're gonna hurt us."

"Big risk they took. But they have her. And we have to get her back. You saw what she looked like. She was suffering." And with that, I pull over on the side of the road, on top of a pile of snow. We all immediately get out of the car. The black pickup pulls up behind us.

The driver gets out of his car, smirking at us.

"So you know that pretty young lady," he says, not in a question sort of way.

"Yes. We wouldn't have pulled over otherwise," Noah answers.

"Why is she in your car?" I yell at the man.

"Let her go!" Anthony cries, running at the man. But the huge guy just pushes him away.

The man who had been sitting in the back appears with Destiny in front of him. He has a strong grip on both her shoulders.

Anthony runs toward her. The big man reaches for him, but Anthony dodged him and throws his arms around Destiny. The second man doesn't stop him. Destiny doesn't hug him back, having her hands tied, but she's obviously happy that we're here.

Another car pulls over. Two men get out of the car. They're big men with mean faces.

"Alright. She has a boyfriend. So chill," the guy holding Destiny pushes Anthony off her.

"What?" Anthony gasps.

"No I don't!" Destiny rolls her eyes, like they've been through that before. "He means Justin. Don't worry," she tells Anthony.

"They're not dating dummy," Anthony tells the big guy.

"Anthony!" I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him away from the men.

"Alright. We cannot talk here, for a car may drive up. We will go to a different location where no one will see us. One of my men will drive your car, so that we know that you won't run off. Do not argue, or she will get hurt," the driver tells us. I see Destiny flinch when he threatens.

I quickly think. I don't know what the men might do to Destiny in the car, but I don't think it's a good idea for her to go by herself.

"Let me go in the car with you. There's no space for another person in the car," I lie.

"You little liar. There's plenty of space for three more people in your car. Whatever You two can catch up in the pickup. All the rest of you, get back in your car. Zane will drive you," he points at the driver of the second car.

"No. I'll go. Eli, you can stay with your friends," Anthony steps forward.

I turn to one of the men. "Can one of you put him in the car? He won't go in otherwise."

The passenger of the second car walks over, picks up Anthony, and throws him in the car. Noah, Jordan, and Jake silently get in the car after him. I hand Zane the keys and he sits down in my car.

Meanwhile, the guy holding Destiny takes her back behind the pickup truck. The guy who's clearly the leader leads me to the pickup, opening the back.

"You are not to touch her. You two can sit together, but don't touch her. Or else," he warns me.

"Um okay," I reply taking a deep breath.

"Jorik! Hurry up!" The man calls.

"Coming Gunner," Jorik appears with Destiny in front of him. He had tied her hands behind her now instead of in front. He picks her up and throws her in the bed of the pickup.

"Wait, she'll tell him everything," Gunner says, walking to the cab. He comes back with a roll of black duct tape. He hands it to Jorik. Jorik climbs on the bed, ripping off a piece of tape.

"You are not putting that on me!" Destiny says kicking him in the knee as he tries to get close.

"Don't move," Jokrik commands me. He lunges forward and catches her arm.

"Stay still if you know what's good for you," Jorik commands through gritted teeth. He pushes her against the cab, but she isn't making it easy for him. I just look on in horror, but don't do anything, knowing it's best not to mess with these men. But of course, Jorik has an advantage. He pushes her shoulders against the cab so she can't move and puts the piece of tape over her mouth. He looks like he wants to hit her for not cooperating, but just flares and gets off the cargo bed.

"Remember. Don't touch her," Gunner reminds me and slams the door to the cargo bed shut. He and Jorik go to the cab and start driving. The new car leads the way, followed by my car, and then the pickup.

I glance at Destiny. She leaned her head against the cab, eyes closed, looking defeated and exhausted. After about two minutes of driving, I lean towards her and carefully peel the tape off her mouth.

"Are you alright?" I ask, realizing how much she must have suffered the past couple of days.

"Why'd you do that? You'll get in big trouble," She says kind of panting, her blonde hair flying in her face.

"So what? I couldn't stand seeing you like that. It breaks my heart when one of the agents is captured," I reply. "And anyway, what's the worst they can do to me for taking off a piece of tape?"

"They can beat you half to death like they did with Justin," she says, but then immediately seems to regret saying that.

"Wait what?" I ask, my heart racing. "They did what to Justin?" The thought of my little brother all beat up, half to _death_, makes me want to vomit.

Destiny's eyes have a lot of sadness in them. "Yeah, sorry for mentioning that. Forget I said it," she says, biting her lip.

"No! Now that I know about it, you have to tell me everything," I beg.

"Well, fine," she says after slight hesitation. She looks down as she tells me what happens to her and Justin after Jake escaped.

"They beat Justin with a wooden stick and a whip. Then they tied him up, and Gunner got ready to beat me up. But Jorik was like 'no she's a girl, I think she learned her lesson, blah, blah, blah'," she stops to take a deep breath. I know she hates it when people do or don't do stuff because she's a girl. That's when I noticed for the first time that she has an angry cut on her cheek.

"What happened to your cheek?" I lean forward to get a closer look in the darkening sky.

Destiny looks away. "The whip." I cringe. By the looks of her cut, the whip must have had a little hook on the end.

Destiny looks up at me. "If you think that's bad, then you won't recognize Justin," she said quietly.

I lean back against the cab, my head in my hands. I've got to find Justin.

"So where is he? Where's Justin?" I ask. But she never gets the chance to answer. Because at that moment, the truck pulls up to an old gas station. The owner waves and goes inside the store.

"They're not gonna kill us in there, are they?" I ask.

"It's a gas station. There are people around. They just want to talk. Make a deal or whatever," Destiny replies pretty confidently.

"But that deal will most likely have your life on the line. Since you're their prisoner," I point out. Destiny just shrugs, looking down. The truck drives behind the gas station to a small empty parking lot. Gunner and Jorik get out, immediately walking to the back. Gunner opens the door to take us out. Jorik climbs in.

"Alright. Kid you're first," he says, looking up at us. And sees that I took off the tape. He stands there for a quick second, not exactly sure what to do.

"You were told! Why do you never listen?" He roars. He grabs Destiny's arm, yanking her up and pushes her off the truck. Gunner barely sees it coming, but catches her before she hits the road.

"What's wrong with you?" I yell standing up, fists clenched.

"Why'd you touch her? Gunner told me put the tape on her for a purpose! So she wouldn't talk! And we told you that you'd be in trouble if you touch her!" Jorik threatens. He grabs my arm and shoves me to the edge. Before I can jump off, he pushes me from behind, and I land hard on my right shoulder.

Jorik jumps off the truck, and Gunner shoves Destiny to him, making her stumble.

"Be careful!" I exclaim. I can't believe how bad they're treating her. And I can't believe she's letting them. She's usually the type of girl who fights back. But here, she lets them push her around, she's super quiet, only talks when someone is talking to her. I barely recognize her.

**CHAPTER THIRTEEN**

Jorik and Gunner escort me and Destiny over to where the rest of the party is waiting. It's an ally between the gas station and a house. It's littered with broken bricks, wooden planks, lots of snow, and garbage.

Gunner and Jorik, Jorik gripping Destiny's arm, go to the back of the ally. Zane and the other man stand at the front, and us in the middle.

Noah must have noticed the thundercloud on my face because he immediately asked what happened. I told him about what Destiny had told me and the way the men treated her. Noah nodded when I finished, his face looking a little red.

Gunner walks back and forth slowly for a few moments. Then leans down and picks up a brick. He walks over to where Jorik is holding Destiny in front of him. He puts the brick right above her head. Everyone quickly realizes what he plans to do.

Destiny twisting her body to get out of Jorik's grip, and Gunner smirks at her.

"What're you doing?!" Anthony yells.

"If you don't do as we say," Gunner begins. He raises the brick and brings it down. Destiny flinches. But he stops two inches above her head. "Or else."

"We'll do it!" Anthony cries.

"Anthony, you don't even know what they want," Jordan says.

"What is it?" I ask.

A loud rumble shatters the quiet air. The ground starts shaking. The shaking tosses all of us off our feet. An earthquake! Today of all days!

I pick myself up and run at Jorik, hoping he'll let go of Destiny while the ground is shaking. No such luck.

Jorik stands up. He had wrapped his big arms around Destiny, so that she can barely even move, and nearly a foot off the ground. She kicks him in the shin. He curses but still doesn't let go.

I run up and jump on Jorik's back, my arms wrapped around his thick neck. He wheels around quickly, and I lose my grip, flying off and hitting the gas station wall. I stand up, ready to fight. But Gunner runs at me, and slams me hard into the brick wall with his shoulder. Knocks the breath right out of me. Everyone falls again as the ground gives another shake, and the trash around the alley bounces up and down.

Gunner picks up another brick. Now Destiny is really squirming, kicking Jorik, head bumping him even. But he holds tight. Gunner walks forward slowly, his eyes blazing with anger.

Jordan runs at him from behind. But Jorik sees it. "Gunner!" Gunner whirls around and hurls his brick at Jordan. The brick hits him in the head, and he collapses in a snow drift, unmoving.

"No!" I cry. No one moves for a few moments. Then both Noah and I run at Gunner. I jump on his back, holding on to his neck, while Noah starts punching and kicking. Jake and Anthony rush at Jorik and Destiny.

I see Jorik lean down and whisper something to Destiny, before the boys reach them. Her face suddenly twists with pain and she nods.

Right before the guys reach them, Destiny says, "Stop!" Both stop short, a couple feet from them.

"You're threatening her!" Anthony yells, and charges again.

"Anthony stop!" Destiny yells, but Anthony jumps onto the man's back.

I see Zane and the other man running to us. When they get close, Jorik shoves Destiny to Zane, and starts fighting the two boys.

The fourth man comes over and helps Gunner get me and Noah off him. I see Zane pushing Destiny back to the cars. I let go of Gunner and sprint after them.

When I reach them, I step in front of them and say firmly, "let her go." Zane just laughs. He raises his arm and gives me a vicious punch in the stomach, making me back off in pain. He shuffles past me, dragging Destiny behind him. She gives me an empathetic look as they pass. My fists clench and I raise myself up. This battle ain't over.

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN**

Destiny

When Gunner got Elijah to pull over, I didn't really know if they would even do anything. I'm not related to Noah or Eli or Jordan. But what I didn't know was that Jake and Anthony were also in the car.

As Anthony hugged me, he whispered, "don't worry. We'll get you away from them."

Then Eli said that he won't go anywhere unless he was in the car with me, which totally surprised me. I mean, we never really talked. He's always with his buddies and I'm always with the guys.

Gunner let him sit in the back of the pickup with me, but Jorik didn't really like that. He tied my hands behind me really tight, and said that he would beat Eli himself if Eli even thought of untying me. I heard Gunner give pretty much the same instructions to Eli, who was already in the pickup.

I saw Eli's eyes flash in anger when Jorik brought me over to the back and tossed me up to the cargo bed. But when Gunner handed that roll of black tape to Jorik, who jumped up to put it on me, I did not like that. No way. I kicked Jorik in the knee, hoping he would curse or whatever, and back off. But he didn't even seem bothered by it. He pushed me against the cab, and smacked the tape across my mouth. I lean my head against the cab and close my eyes. I'm done with this horrible day.

I didn't think Eli had the nerve to take the tape off, but he did, and he made me tell him about what happened to me and Justin.

Then, in the ally, I can't believe Gunner threatened to smash the brick on my head. The thought terrifies me. Having my brains splattered in some alley who knows where… Then Eli ran up and started fighting, and the other guys followed him.

When Anthony and Jake started charging at Jorik and me, Jorik wrapped his foot around my ankle and twisted it pretty bad. He said to make the boys stop running or he'll break my foot and then both their necks.

Now, as Zane is dragging me back to the truck, Eli runs up and tries to stop him, but Zane punches him in the stomach and moves on. I wince as he leans against the wall, clutching his stomach in pain. I know how much it hurts.

Zane shoves me back inside the pickup truck and sits next to me as we wait for Gunner, Jorik, and Waldo to come back.

Jorik came a couple minutes later, followed by Waldo. Waldo gets into his car and Zane leaves to go with him. Jorik sits next to me again.

Jorik looks at little bruised up. Most of all, he looked really angry. He leans towards me, putting his fist right under my chin.

"I kind of wish now that we had beat you up back at the ship," he growls. I lean away from him as far as I can, but the door is right next to me and I have nowhere to go. If my hands were tied in front of me, then I may have opened the door and run out, but nope.

Suddenly, the glass in the window next to me shatters. But fortunately, no glass hits me. I look out to see that Eli is standing a few feet away from my window. And he's holding a gun. Is he crazy? He could have hit me!

Jorik reaches into his backpack sitting on the floor, and pulls out a knife. He puts the knife under my chin. I don't breathe.

"Put the gun down kid. Or else," Jorik threatens.

"Where are you taking her?" Eli asks, not lowering the gun.

Gunner is sneaking up behind Eli.

"Eli watch out!" I yell.

Jorik smacks me and pushes the knife harder. Gunner pounces on Eli.

After a few moments of struggle, Jorik presses the knife even farther, leans in close to me, gives his murderous glare, and leaves the car to help Gunner.

It takes both of them to hold Eli down. They bound his hands behind him.

"Should we take him with us? What do ya think?" Gunner scowls at Eli.

"What do ya think?" Jorik yells to me.

"Take me with you! Just don't hurt anyone!" Eli yells.

Everyone looks surprised. Why would he want to come with these evil men?

"Alright. You heard him. Let's move," Gunner orders. He and Jorik each grab an arm and bring him to the pickup. Jorik sits in the middle, me on his left, Eli on his right.

"Let me sit next to her," Eli demands.

"You wish. She has a boyfriend," Jorik replies. I kick him in the leg, and notice that my ankle is swelling up pretty badly.

"Control yourself. Or else," Jorik holds up his knife.

"Easy yourself!" Eli says, his eyes flashing.

Jorik reaches behind me and unties my hands. He reaches over to tie them again in front of me, but I hold me hands away from him.

"What's the point? We're still in a car. I'm not stupid enough to jump out a moving vehicle," I'm really tired of him tying me up. My wrists are red and my hands are bluish from him tying the rope so hard.

"You're an agent. I'm not an idiot. I've seen what you can do. I don't feel like taking any chances. And I don't need you to jump out of the car," Jorik replies.

"Child lock is on that door. She won't be able to jump out even if she wanted to kill herself," Gunner replies from the front. "Cooperate or else," he adds looking in the rearview mirror.

We approach the city. Jorik leans over and grabs my right arm, and started wrapping the rope around it. I waited till we stopped in traffic, then raised my left arm, which Jorik was getting ready to tie up, and gave Jorik the hardest punch I could muster. I hear a crack when my fist connects with his nose. He pulls away from me with a cry of pain. I quickly push myself out the window, the remaining glass cutting me some, and land hard on my back. Ignoring the pain in my back and ankle, I stand up and start sprinting toward the nearest building. Or, as close to sprinting as I could get with a twisted ankle. There's about thirty cars on the road, but that's no good.

I was across two lanes of traffic when I heard a loud crash behind me, and glance over my shoulder to see that Jorik is chasing me, his face bloody and angry. He'll easily catch up to me! I have a twisted ankle which _really _slows me down. Cars honk as I run between them. And then the light turns green, making the cars move. Just before a huge pickup hits me, Jorik tackles me from behind, and we both hit the sidewalk.

Jorik stands up, his arm gripping my shoulder with so much strength, that I feel like he broke it. My twisted ankle is on fire now, making me stumble as I try not to fall.

"Not a word or you're dead," Jorik threatens. I notice a bulge in his jacket, which I'm pretty sure is his gun. As Jorik drags me back to the truck, which is parked in a gas station, refueling, people walking past stare in confusion and several seem to reach for their phones. Jorik notices them and hurried me toward the truck. As soon as Gunner sees me, he grabs a handful of my shirt and pushes me against the truck.

"What is wrong with you?" he hisses. "That was a huge mistake!" With that, he shoves me into the backseat. He and Jorik have a quick talk, then Jorik climbs in the back, pushing me into Eli. Gunner climbs in, pulls out of the gas station, and turns on the radio.

"Breaking news! Just two days ago, John Eagleson, a martial arts and gymnastics teacher, was shot in his gymnasium while waiting for his students to arrive. He was shot by Amos Volkskin. Elijah and Justin Eagleson, sons of John, Destiny and Anthony Jackson, Noah and Jacob Norris, and Jordan Anderson witnessed the murder when they arrived for training. Something happened in the gym, and when it was all over, Destiny Jackson, Justin Eagleson, and Jacob Norris were missing. All three later turned up on a huge ship owned by Mr. Rick Harris. A fire aboard the ship brought everyone off, and when the chaos died down, Destiny Jackson, Jacob Norris, Gunner Tolir, Jorik Zarok, Zane Berl, and Waldo Yun, four workers of Rick Harris, were reported missing. Justin Eagleson claims that Gunner, Jorik, Zane, and Waldo kidnapped the young girl and will soon be demanding ransom. He believes that they might be planning on killing her after receiving the ransom. Justin describes the men as: one has white-blonde hair, and is at least six feet tall, one has black hair and a full beard. Another is almost seven feet tall and extremely muscular. The fourth has red hair and no facial hair. Police and FBI are on the case. Please be on the lookout for these four men and a thirteen year old girl. This is Amy Lorin on Hurstville News."

Oh no. I was hoping on not making headlines. That just causes more trouble and more hideouts and stuff.

"Is it true?" I ask, looking at my swollen ankle.

"Ha! Kill you? Nah. We weren't even supposed to kidnap you in the first place but now that that's happened, I'm not sure what we'll be doing," Jorik grins at me evilly.

"You kids sure know how to attract attention," Gunner says.

"They know a lot. But my guess is that Justin kid. They interviewed him."

"And Rick is a super rich guy. He's got hundreds of workers on that ship. News ought to leak out," Gunner adds.

"Wait. So you don't work for the FBI? And the ship isn't really a military ship?" I ask.

I get ignored.

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN**

After about a two hour drive, we arrive back in the city. We're back in Hurstville. That's where we live. Gunner drives to the woods. The same woods where we live.

"I thought, the police won't look for you in your own house, would they?" Gunner laughs.

He drives onto the hidden road and soon arrives in our little neighborhood of four houses, three barns, and two garages.

"How-how did you know?" Eli stammers.

"Don't worry about it," Gunner smirks at me through the rearview mirror. Eli looks at me, confusion and fear written all over his face. I just shrug.

He parks the car in front of Eli and Justin's house.

Gunner climbs out of the car and opens the door. Jorik climbs out, then Gunner grabs my arm and pulls me out of the car. Gunner picks the lock to the Anthony's house and barges in. He grabs my arm and leads me away from Eli and Jorik, who also come into the house. He leads me up to the second floor, and to Anthony's parents room.

"Who's room is this?"

"The parents'," I croak.

Gunner shoves me to the next room, his muddy boots loudly stomping the floor. "Who's room is this?"

"Mine."

Gunner pulls me over to the rolling chair that's standing in front of the table. He pushes me into it, tying my hands behind the back of the chair, and another rope around my stomach to the back of the chair.

"Very well. Now, about that little incident in the city. I told you it was a mistake, remember?" Gunner begins.

"Oh, no," I mumble.

"You regret it now huh?" Gunner grins evilly. "Well turns out, I've got a little surprise up my sleeve." Gunner pushes the chair away from the desk and looks through all the drawers. And smiles as he finds what he's looking for.

"I'm sure you have some important documents in this room?" He asks, looking at me.

"Um…"

Gunner holds up a small box with a combination code and keyhole.

"Care to share?" He asks.

"No!"

"Destiny, Destiny. Wanna know something? Your dad and Rick Harris, you know that rich guy who pretended to be a General on his ship, are partners in this little episode. Your dad paid Rick plenty of money for all of this to happen. The fire, the kidnapping, even the beating. It was all thanks to good old Martin," he finishes and smiles with satisfaction at my horrified face. "I need something to break that box open. I also need to see how Jorik and Eli are doing down there. Stay here. And don't do anything," Gunner orders.

"How could I? You think I can reach for a knife that I don't have and cut the ropes?" I answer sarcastically, coming out of my shock.

Gunner stares at me for a second, then pushes the chair to the big floor-to-ceiling window that covers half of that wall. He smashes the glass and puts the chair on the edge. He then leans down and puts his hands on my shoulders.

"You want to go down there?" He growls. "Didn't think so. Now stop being smart with me, or," he leans the chair back. I don't dare even breathe. If he loses grip on the chair. . . "...else."

Gunner finally puts the chair back upright and wheels me to the table.

He pauses right outside the door. "We forgot one thing," he grins evilly, then reaches into his huge pants pocket and pulls out a roll of tape.

"No Gunner!" I beg, turning my head away.

"Someone might walk by," he says grinning again. He rips off a piece and puts it on my mouth. Then he leaves.

I hear him climbing down the stairs, then taunting Eli. Eli starts yelling, he has a short temper. I hear a sound of pain, and guess that Gunner hit Eli. Or probably Jorik hit him.

I struggle to get out of the ropes. I strain, pull, twist. Anything to get them off.

The closet door creaks. I struggle to turn around. Someone grabs the chair and turns it around.

I can only stare in shock at what I see.

A high school aged girl with another high school aged boy with a phone pointed at me. Another young guy behind them, definitely older than them, looking worried.

The girl looks like she's about to say something, but the man in the back quickly walks over and gently pulls the tape off my mouth. He takes a small pocketknife out of his pocket and starts cutting, carefully not to cut me by accident.

The girl is wearing jeans and a t-shirt, just like the guy. She squats down next to me and helps the first guy cut through the ropes.

"There's police all over the property. They're waiting to see what the kidnappers will do. Anyone gets hurt, the police attack. They're waiting for the kidnappers to say something useful," the nice guy whispers.

The knife finally cuts through all the ropes, and the nice guy helps me stand up. I rip the tape off my mouth.

The girl stands up also. "You're Destiny Jackson," she states.

"Yeah," I squint at her and the boy with the phone. "What are you doing in my room?"

"The police let us up here. We're filming this because everyone wants to know what's happening. We're live on Instagram by the way," the girl replies.

I wheel around and limp out of the room.

"Wait, Destiny, wait!" The girl exclaims.

I shoot her a glare. "Hush or they'll hear you!" I go to the railing that overlooks the living room. Glancing down, I see Eli sitting in a chair facing Gunner and Zane. Tiptoeing to the stairs, I hear footsteps behind me. It's the nice guy who untied me.

"I'm David by the way," the young man says.

"Thanks for helping me out back there," I thank him.

"Any sensible person would have done the same thing," David smiles at me.

"The stairs lead down to the kitchen. We can sneak out that way and find the police you were talking about," I tell David.

He follows me as we quietly sneak down the stairs. At the bottom, I peek around the corner to the living room.

"Oh those two are getting on my nerves," David whispers.

I glance up and see the cameraman quietly walking down the stairs, camera pointed at us, the girl by his side. She's grinning. GRINNING! She's probably having the time of her life. For me, this is life or death. At least they're not getting in the way.

Suddenly, I hear a sound like something hit someone and David cries out in pain.

Before I can turn around and see who it is, someone grabs me from behind, huge arms wrap around my arms and chest and lifts me off my feet.

"So who's this young man?" a familiar, annoying voice asks. "Your new boyfriend? What happened to good old Justin?"

Jorik.

I kick and struggle to get away from him but he walks to the living room, ignoring the camera.

"Look who I found trying to escape!" Jorik proudly says.

"Let me go!" I struggle some more.

Jorik puts me down on the ground and holds my hands behind my back as Gunner walks over.

"Ever wonder what we do to all our prisoners?" He taunts taking a knife out.

"Oh no you don't!" David yells. Everyone turns around to see David standing at the edge of the living room. He starts running towards us. Towards Gunner. As David is running past me and Jorik, Jorik suddenly pushes me hard in David's direction. I slam into David and we both fall hard against the coffee table standing next to the wall. I think my ankle is officially broken.

Gunner, Jorik, and Zane surround us. David jumps up, ready to fight. Zane's fist comes flying out of nowhere and David crumples to the ground.

"And you, young lady, are in big trouble," Gunner says, the way a parent would when their kid got in trouble.

I turn around to see what he's going to do. I see Jorik reaching for me from behind, but he stops cold when we hear shouting from outside.

"C'mon line up! Make sure the house is surrounded! Move it!" Someone yells.

Gunner grabs me in a tight headlock and stands off to the side of the living room, partially hidden by furniture. The others also stand behind furniture, guns out, but not clearly visible, all waiting for the police to storm the house.

A second later, the place becomes chaos. At least fifteen police officers storm the house. The front door is just left of the living room.

All officers point their guns at us. Zane, Jorik, and Waldo raise their guns, but no one shoots.

"Put your guns down," Gunner orders. Jorik swings his armed hand and points the gun at my head.

The chief glares him and motions for his men to lower their weapons. Waldo and Zane start shooting the officers, and Jorik cocks his arm and shoots me in the shoulder.

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN**

Elijah

The officers who didn't immediately get shot by Zane and Waldo raise their guns and start shooting back, looking for protection from the bulletstorm. I see that Destiny seems to be in extreme pain from the shot that Jorik put in her, and Gunner is quickly dragging her backwards, using her body to shield his own.

But then at least three bullets hit him at the same time, and he collapses to the ground, spitting blood out of his mouth. He drops Destiny, and she rolls away from him, stopping five feet away, clutching her shoulder.

I jump up to help, but as soon as I stand up, pain shoots into my stomach, and I sit down, trying not to pass out.

**CHAPTER SEVENTEEN**

Destiny

I wake up to the sounds of yelling and crying. I shake my head and prop myself up on my elbow. My leg and shoulder are on fire. I notice that my agent jacket is off, leaving me in a thin muscle shirt in the cold winter air, which got in from the open door.

I look around. I'm still in the living room at Anthony's house. There is a puddle of blood around my left leg and shoulder. I feel lightheaded and short of breath.

Eli is behind me. He's laying on the floor, unconscious. There's three people surrounding him, doing something to his stomach, I think. At least seven police officers are littered around the living room, some silent, some screaming in pain. People in white move around the wounded, assisting them with the few supplies they have on hand.

There's a small group of people sitting on both sides of me. I look over to where two people are working on my leg. One of them cuts open the pant leg up to the knee.

"Honey, can you lay back down for me?" A woman sitting next to me asks me. She and another man gently but firmly push me down. I put my arm across my eyes. Whatever they're doing to my leg, it hurts.

"Where is she?" I hear someone yell as they run in the door.

I hear someone running over and sitting down next to the man. I move my arm and see Anthony squatting next to me, his eyes looking wild and scared. He has a black eye and several bruises on his arms and face and neck.

"Destiny can you hear me? Are you okay?" Anthony asks me. Then to the man and woman, "Why isn't she in the hospital?" He seems to be panicking.

"Destiny?" Anthony asks again.

"I hear you," I say quietly.

I've got no strength left. I haven't eaten or slept properly for at least three days now. And my leg and shoulder hurt so much.

"Destiny the ambulance is on its way. Don't worry," Anthony tells me. I look up at him. He's crying. He looking around wildly.

"Where are they? Can't they hurry up?!" He screams.

I feel my eyes closing. I feel myself fading out. But suddenly, something sharp pokes my leg, right in the wound. I sit up with a cry. The two men are still doing something to it. The man next to me grabs my right shoulder and pushes me down again. The woman starts wrapping a bandage around my left shoulder.

I've been trying really hard not to cry, but the pain in my leg brings the tears. The tears keep coming. There are more painful stabs to my leg, which keep bringing me up. The two people sitting next to me keep their hands on my shoulders and speak in calming voices.

I start trembling from the cold, which makes the pain in the shoulder even worse. Anthony continues freaking out, as the lady finishes bandaging my shoulder.

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN**

Anthony

After Zane took off with Destiny in that alley, Jorik finished with me and Jake, throwing punches and leaving us in that alley, while Gunner and Waldo finished with Noah. Then they all left.

I quickly got up and ran over to Jordan, who lay on the ground in a heap, a pool of blood around his head from the deep wound that Gunner did when he threw that brick.

Noah runs over a couple moments later, with a split lip and broken wrist. He puts a finger under Jordan's nose.

"Well?" I whisper. In answer, Noah starts crying. Hard. He punches the ground in anger and sadness and turns away from me.

"Jake," I say walking over to him. "Lets go get the guy who owns this place."

We creep up to the front of the alley, hoping that Gunner and his crew were gone. But no.

We could see Eli pointing a gun at the truck.

"Where's he get the gun?" Jake whispers. Gunner sneaks up behind Eli and tackles him. We hear Destiny try to shout at him a warning before Gunner pounces, but she's too late. I see Jorik say something to Destiny in the car, then gets out to help Gunner.

"C'mon this is our chance," I nudge Jake.

"What about them?" Jake asks.

"There's nothing we can do," I reply.

We wait a couple more minutes until they leave, then run to the gas station and ask the teen at the cashier to call 911.

The ambulance arrives fifteen minutes later. Before they take all of us down to the hospital, Jake and I ask the owner of the gas station to watch our car for us.

They pronounced Jordan dead at the hospital. Noah bought a coffin and put Jordan in there, but didn't bury him. He planned on having the funeral after we found Eli and Destiny. He knew Eli would want to attend it.

Lucky for us that Noah went on Instagram and saw a guy from his school doing a live video. It showed the guy's girlfriend and another guy we don't know untying Destiny from a chair.

"What the heck?" Noah explodes.

"Lets go!" I exclaim.

"Where?" Jake asks.

"That's Destiny's room! They went to our house!"

When we arrived on the property, an officer told us that a shootout had gone down in the Jackson house, and the four men plus a teenager and a young girl were injured in that house as well. I took off as soon as I heard that.

Coming in through the front door, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Hearing voices in the living room, I ran in there and saw what I hoped I wouldn't have to.

Destiny is lying on the floor, a pool of blood around her left leg and shoulder. Her face is all twisted up in pain. Four people sit around her. Two seem to be doing something to her leg, and the other two are holding her down so that she doesn't sit up. She put her arm across her eyes but moved it when she heard me.

I run over and squat down next to her. "Destiny can you hear me? Are you okay?" Then at the two people sitting next to her. "Why isn't she in the hospital? Destiny?"

"I hear you," she barely whispers.

Tears well up in my eyes. "The ambulance is on its way, don't worry."

More than once, she sits up suddenly, with a cry of pain. It kinda freaks me out. The lady sitting across from me grabs a bandage roll and starts wrapping her shoulder. That's when I notice that she's wearing a thin shirt.

"Where's her jacket?" I ask.

"We had to take it off in order to see the shoulder wound," the lady answers without stopping on wrapping her shoulder.

Destiny suddenly starts trembling.

"What's happening?" I cry.

The man sitting next to me puts a hand on my shoulder. "She's just cold. Chill out. The ambulance will be here any minute."

The ambulance arrives thirty seconds later. They load Destiny and Eli in the back and rode off to the hospital. More ambulances arrive and take the seven injured officers to the hospital as well.

I stand at the front door, watching them go. As the two medics who were working in Destiny's leg pass by, I ask them, "was the leg bad?"

"I'm sorry to scare you, kid, but she got two bullets in almost the same spot and it's pretty bad," the lady replies.

The man pats me on the shoulder. "She'll survive."

**CHAPTER NINETEEN**

Destiny

When I wake up again, I feel blinded by all the white there is. There's a nurse hovering right next to me. She smiles when she sees that I'm awake.

"Your brother has been asking to see you for the past two hours. Now that you're awake, would you like me to call him in?" She asks sweetly.

"My brother? Sure," I whisper. I'm guessing she's talking about Anthony.

The nurse leaves, and a couple of minutes later, the door opens again. I look at the door, expecting Anthony. But instead, David walks in. But Anthony is right behind him. Anthony immediately runs over.

"You survived!" He laughs. He leans over and gives me a tight hug. My shoulder starts screaming with pain. I wince, but this time, I hug him back.

"Where's Justin? Was he found?" I ask.

"Yeah, he's in this hospital. He got some serious injuries but the doctors say he should make a full recovery. And Eli is here too. He got shot in the stomach. He's in another room," Anthony informs me. "Have they told you anything yet?"

"No."

At that moment, two nurses walk in. "Excuse me boys, but it's time to change the bandage on Destiny leg. Could you please exit the room?" One of them says.

"Oh, but can we watch?" Anthony begs.

"Uh, I'm not sure if that's allowed," the second one says. "There's no time to check. But don't be in the way."

"I'll wait outside," David says, walking out.

The nurses walk over and get all their instruments out. They carefully start taking off the bandage. Ooohhh it hurts so much! I moan quietly.

"You alright?" Anthony asks, squeezing my hand. .

I squeeze my eyes shut and try not to scream. I can feel sweat dripping from my forehead. I don't think I've ever experienced this kind of pain in my life. It's worse than when I was back at the house waiting for the ambulance to arrive. I squeeze Anthony's hand. It feels like their taking flesh out of my leg. I take several deep breaths and try to calm down.

"Alright, we're finished. We'll be back tomorrow to change it again," the first nurse says.

"How much longer will she have to stay in the hospital?" Anthony asks.

"I don't know. You'll have to ask the doctor." David comes back in, a water bottle in his hand.

"Anthony? Can I talk to her in private?" He asks nervously.

"Sure."

David walks over and sits on a chair next to the hospital bed.

"Thirsty?" He asks handing me the water bottle. I take it and drink half the bottle.

"You're an only child right?" He asks. Wow, that's pretty random.

"Yeah."

"So, what's your dad's name?"

"Martin." Even though I don't act like Martin is my biological father, he is.

"You know, my dad's name is Martin too."

"Uh, that's cool, I guess."

"He dumped me with his brother a month after I was born. I heard your dad did the same thing."

"Yeah." I don't really see where he's going with this.

"I asked the doctor to do a DNA test while you were still sleeping."

"Who did you compare your DNA to?"

"You."

I sit up. "Me? Why?"

David stands up. "Destiny. They _matched_."

It takes a moment for that to sink in. David is my _brother?_

"You're my brother?"

He nods smiling. "That's why I was hiding in your closet with those high schoolers. I wanted you to start liking me, so that I'm not a stranger who just comes and says that he's your brother. If you don't believe me, I'll get the results to show you."

"I believe you."

David leans down and hugs me. I can't believe it! Finally, a sibling! It was lonely being the only person without an immediate family member in the house.

Anthony pokes his head in. "Eli requested a three person recovery room for the three of you. The doctors are about to take you there Destiny. That alright with you?" He shoots me a confused look, seeing David hugging me.

"Yeah sure."

A minute later, two nurses step in. They take off the IV tube out of my hand and get everything ready to be moved to the recovery room.

They drive me down the hallway, a couple turns, and into a big room filled with medical equipment.

"There she is!" Someone says as the doctors roll the bed in.

Eli and Justin are already in the room, laying in their own hospital beds. Anthony's parents, Jake's parents, Anthony, Jake, Noah are all there. I also notice Julie, Jaden, Mark, and Jackson, Jordan's brother. They were the kids that were kidnapped and we had to rescue them. It was all fake for the movie, but they didn't know.

The nurses put my bed against the only space next to the wall left, and put the IV tube back in my hand, and put a bandage to keep the needle there. One of them adjusts the oxygen tube on my face, that goes into my nose to help me breath, and they both leave.

"Ey, Destiny," Eli calls. "How many bullets did you get?"

"I don't know. The doctors didn't really tell me anything."

A doctor walks in with a nurse. "Alright, I got the info all you guys wanted."

"Okay, so Eli," the doctor begins. Eli? No one but his friends and family call him Eli. I guess while the doctor was working on him, Eli must have talked a bunch. Eli talks a lot. "He got one bullet. In the stomach. You got shot by one of the police officers, by accident. You should make a full recovery, but you will have to eat through a feeding tube because your stomach won't take food if you swallow it.

"Justin, you got three really deep cuts on your back. The cuts seem to be from a horse tail whip with metal hooks on the edge. It's healing, but there might be an infection. If there is no infection, we will send you home with medicine and let your cuts heal.

"Destiny. Three bullets. One in the shoulder by Jorik Zarok. Two in the leg by officers aiming for Gunner. You also have a broken ankle on that same leg. You should be out of here pretty soon. Any questions?" The doctor finishes looking around.

"Am I going to have three scars on my back?" Justin asks in a whiny voice.

"Um no actually, you won't. It will take a while for the cuts to heal, but no scars. And stay out of the water, until they're almost gone. Stay out of pools, lakes, rivers, oceans, etcetera. Better to be in clean water, so that you don't get an infection. Baths and showers, that's pretty much it. Okay?"

The doctor looks around. "Oh, and I don't know if you guys want them, but some people collect this sort of thing. We do have the bullets we took out. If you want them, I can get them for you." That would be kind of cool. I want to know how they could tell the difference between who shot us. "I'll take them," I say quietly. The doctor smiles. "All three?" I nod. The doctor leaves to get them.

"Can we have a moment of silence for John and Jordan?" Noah asks.

"Jordan didn't make it?" I ask quietly. I mean, I saw the brick thrown at him, but I thought he made it. No wonder I don't see him. And that's why Jackson is here.

I glance at Eli and see that he's crying. Jordan was one of his best friends. I feel bad for him. He and Noah befriended Jordan after being partners in the movie that was secretly filmed.

After the moment of silence, the doctor came in and said that visiting hours were over and only immediate family was allowed to stay overnight with a patient. Then he hands me the three bullets. I wait until everyone but David leaves. David sits on a chair next to my bed and we examine the bullets.

"Dude, they said everyone but immediate family. I'm think that means you too," Eli tells David.

"Well, then think again," David replies.

"Are you Destiny's brother?" Justin asks.

Well he figured it out pretty quickly. Justin is usually the brains of our missions anyway.

"Yep," David announces happily.

I cannot even begin to describe the look on Eli's and Justin's faces. It was all I could do not to burst out laughing. But David didn't control himself. He burst out laughing, and I'm pretty sure the entire hospital staff and patients heard him. He's got a really loud laugh.

"Well, I'm not going to stay the night, but I'll be back tomorrow. I'll bring the guys with me if you'd like," David tells me and Justin.

One of the bullets looks smaller than the other two. "I guess the smaller one is Jorik's. The other ones have to be the police bullets," I say. David nods. "Keep them safe. You'll be telling your grandkids this story," David laughs again and leaves.

**CHAPTER TWENTY**

The next day, the door to the recovery room bursts open while all three of us are still asleep. David runs in, turns the TV on and wakes us up.

"Guys I've got some news. And I don't think you're going to like it," his tone was enough to convince anyone to wake up.

I sit up in the bed, propping up my pillows behind me.

Rubbing sleep out of my eyes, I ask, "What's up?"

David connects his phone to the TV and a YouTube video pops up. David glances at Eli and Justin. They're deep sleepers. But David shakes them awake, and after they're up and alert, he turns on the video.

The first video is a security camera in the Eagleson gym. The footage shows us running in, fighting, our teacher getting shot, and Justin, Jake, and me getting kidnapped. The next scene is from the FBI cars. The dashboard camera of the lead car shows the shootout, and the three of us running off. It also shows both twins getting shot, and the others arrested. Then Justin comes into view held by two agents. He's searched, then put into the car with the camera.

The next video jumps to the gas station. The station had a couple cameras. It showed us arrive and go into the alley from two angles.

The next video was my bedroom (there's a camera in every bedroom and main room of each house. Whenever we go out, if there's an intruder, we immediately get alerts on our phones. We have to know if anyone is trying to find out about our neighborhood.). It also showed the video the high schoolers made. It showed how David unties me, the gunfight, me and Eli getting shot. Looks like the guy followed us all the way down and filmed the whole thing. I thought he had stayed on the stairs. The security cameras in the living room show the four kidnappers getting shot, the ambulance people coming in and some of the cleanup.

"They titled the video 'the Destiny Jackson kidnapping'," David snorts.

"That looked painful," Justin comments after the video is over.

"Just getting tied up by those jerks was painful. I don't know how you survived a beating from them," Eli tells Justin. Then to me, "and how you managed not to explode with anger at them for two days. I would have had a dang meltdown. Those men are brutal."

"They all got shot. Did any survive?" I ask David.

"I'm pretty sure the blonde one is the only one who survived. I don't want to scare you, but a policeman talked to me and said that when the shootout was over, they found Zane's and Waldo's and Gunner's bodies, but not Jorik's," David tells me. "They think he escaped out the back door. They are searching the city, but no luck so far." I shudder. I hope Jorik gets caught soon. Really don't need him coming back after me.

The doctor checks in later that day and says all three of us will be out of the hospital in a week and a half. Those news brought us joy. A hospital bed may be comfortable and the food may be good, but it's extremely boring. And we haven't been to school in three weeks.

At the end of that week and a half, Noah rented a car big enough for everyone to pick us up from the hospital. The doctors had given me a different cast after a week in the hospital on my ankle. It's one of those that you can walk on. But my left arm is still in a sling. The doctors had told ELi to try eating in the hospital and he's lucky enough to be fine by now. I'll be in the casts for several months.

Noah drives us back to the neighborhood. Police and media are all over the place. There are some construction workers fixing what the kidnappers had broken.

Media swarms the car as soon as Noah parks. Cameras flash and microphones are stuck in our faces. Police push the people away from the car and let us get out of the car. _So this is what it's like to be a celebrity. _

Reporters shout out questions as we try to get to the Norris house. Police officers clear the way for us and wish us luck as they leave.

I collapse on the couch in the living room as soon as we are inside. Justin sits down next to me.

"I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but back on the ship, Gunner said that their job is, you know, beating the crap out of prisoners and stuff. But they didn't do it to you. I could see Gunner really wanted to. How come they didn't?" Justin asks.

"Jorik convinced him not to. Jorik said that after one prisoner sees their partner beat up, they learn their lesson. Which doesn't really make any sense. I don't know," I reply.

"Oh," Justin mumbles, and once again, I feel bad that he went through the interrogation and I didn't. But hey, at least he didn't get shot, right?

"You guys," Noah comes in with Eli. "We'll give everyone two days of recovery and then back to school all right?" He glances at Anthony and Jake. "Well, except for you two. You guys can take one day off, since you've been back to school for almost a week now."

**CHAPTER SIX TWENTY ONE**

The two days of recovery passed really fast. And on the third day, we wake up at 6:30, eat breakfast, and pile into Noah's SUV. Noah drives me, Anthony, Justin, and Jake to our middle school, and drives on to his high school with Eli.

"Ready?" Jake takes a deep breath.

"Yeah let's go," Justin replies.

Coming back to school feels weird. After everything that's happened, I feel like school is just so _normal. _

Jake and I have homeroom together so we walk into science together while Justin heads to his class next door and Anthony goes on the other end of the hall.

Class hasn't started yet and the teacher was out of the room, so when Jake and I take our seats, a bunch of people immediately surrounded us. Questions were fired up from everyone. Rumors had been flying around the school and everyone wanted to know if they're true.

"Did you really get shot three times?"

"Why did the FBI want you?"

"Isn't Amos Volkskin the same guy who played the evil leader of _Secret Agents_?"

"Did you break someone's nose?"

"Did you really start the fire on Rick Harris's ship?"

Luckily, the teacher came in and everyone scrambled to their seats.

"Welcome back, Destiny. Hope you are ready to jump in with us and catch up on everything you missed."

By lunchtime, the rumors got worse. When the four of us sat down in the cafeteria, a bunch of people crammed in next to us and kept firing their questions.

"Is it true that you got beat up and whipped with a horse tail whip?" to Justin.

"Did you really escape the FBI three times?" to Jake.

"Did you really knock out a super rich guy?" To Jake.

"Is it true that someone got killed because he was trying to rescue you?" To me. I wince at that one and glance at the guys. They all heard it and had sad expressions.

"Did you really break Jorik Zarok's nose?" To me.

"Was Anthony the one who accidently broke your ankle?" To me.

Seems like everyone had seen the Instagram video and security footage of our house. I don't know how they found out about me breaking Jorik's nose and the beating, though.

The lunch bell rang and everyone scattered.

"How did they find out about me breaking Jorik's nose?" I ask.

"Oh," Anthony says, a guilty expression on his face. "I kinda told some kids what happened. Just to get them off my back."

"Great. Just don't tell them too much. I don't want everyone to know exactly what happened there. Alright?" I tell the guys.

"Sure."

After a couple weeks, the excitement finally died down. But it was hard to lay low after _Secret Agents _and the kidnapping. Both became pretty famous across our town. Now we just need everyone to forget we exist. Can't be a secret agent when you're super popular. Right?

**EPILOGUE**

David and I got along pretty well. Since Eli and Justin no longer have a parent in the house, they invited me and David to stay with them. Since David is twenty, he's allowed to live by himself and we don't have to worry about Child Protective Services. Eli is seventeen and having someone older in the house makes him happy.

I really hope nothing big happens for a while, because we haven't had training for a while now, and none of us are in the shape for action right now. We just need to lie low and let the scars heal.


End file.
